Right, just a small idea that I had. The problem to me seems to be that the people sponsoring Blender don’t feel that they’ve got their money’s worth out of it, so they don’t want to let go until they’ve got something worth talking about in their pockets… (you all know what I mean )
So, cruel plays on words aside, what would happen if the Blender community clubbed together and bought Blender?
Then the Blender community could make it opensource, with Ton at the head, leading Blender on to bigger and better things. The shareholders would be happy, as they would at least have some money in their pockets. Even they’ve got to admit that the prospect of selling Blender on to another company isn’t a particularly nice one, and not very likely either (if people wanted to buy Blender, it would’ve happened by now, right?). This is the best way they’d have to cut their losses. Blender would be freed from commercial obligations (and Ton would even get some money out of it!).
What does everyone think? It’s only theoretical at this stage, and we should wait until Ton gets back to us again, but isn’t it an interesting prospect? Discuss.
First, think about these:
1 How big is the community?
1a. How many could afford to deposit money on that?
1b. How many of those would do that?
2. How much would it be in total?
2a. How much would that do for each 1b?
And then:
3. Do you really think, that there would be enough people who could afford, and would be willing to do that?
AFAIK, buying a whole program with all the sourcecodes etc. isn’t the cheapest thing… it could well be thousands of euros / person…
It is a good idea, but IMO, it couldn’t be done… (though, nothing can’t be said until there’s at least SOME sort of figure on how much it would cost)[/u]
I think it could be enough…Blener has a worldwide userbase estimated at a minimum of 10,000 users (some say 250?). Now say just 1 in 10 decide to contribute something small like 2 or 3 pounds. Bingo - you got 2/3 grand, straight off.
2K - 3K is chump change… not even that, to any corporation. And 1 in 10 is very optimistic :). I hate to be negative, but I think I am also being a realist in this case.
2000 users pay $500 us - that would bring in $1 million
Offer NetVentures $900,000.00 for the source code, the other
$100,000.00 would go towards lawyer’s fee for any paperwork
then you would need to set something up for the 2000 investors for control of the source code. - like a non-profit org for control of blender happenings.
what would we get - everything in the blender source which in turn can be made opensource - like POVRAY - etc…
then no -one would have to buy blender - and it would always be around for anyone to use
In blenders current state, for anyone to do anything, whether it be give money or work, it’s propbably going to need some type of plan that is close to if not guarenteed by the investors. Even if you could get people to help, how can you assure them that things won’t end up like this again, and all the money they donate or work they do get’s lost.
There seems to be a wide variety of people here, I think if there was a laid out plan, say the investors said " for X amount we would release the source". But right now, all we can really do is take shots in the dark.
My guess is that they are holding out for a buyer for Blender, and if you have to ask you can’t afford it? Who knows? I do think that it was crazy to give it away and have significant development at the same time. Whats it worth, how could you keep a business afloat, let along give the investors a return? Even if they got all the current users to pay for their copies in retrospect would that get things going? How much? $100? How much would you pay (for real)? Who are the potential new users? I am guessing that there is a huge potential market of people with powerful computers and nothing to do with them, who would love to get into Blender. Not to be a pro, people who do other jobs (even accountants!). But how to tap that market how to…
Ahh hell what do I know this is one tricky situation.
Rob.
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